Index Archive

16 September 2016

High Court Photocopying books No Crime No Infringement of Copyright In 2012, a group of international publishers, including Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Taylor & Francis, had moved court against the sale of certain textbooks by a shop called Rameshwari Photocopy Service.

The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed a plea filed by a group of international publishers
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Taylor & Francis who argued against the sale of photocopies of their textbooks.

While passing the verdict, Justice RS Endlaw said, “Copyright is not a divine right”. The court also lifted a ban imposed on a bookseller in Delhi University's north campus from selling the material. The court said that if Delhi University can photocopy, so can its agents.

A bench of Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw lifted the ban on photocopy Rameshwari Photocopy Service near the Delhi School of Economics on the North Campus from making photocopies of study material from the books

Delhi High court observed that photocopying was protected in the copyright Act through an exception for educational purposes.

The book publishers need to reduce the prices of the books, once books become affordable students will prefer to buy the original books otherwise photo copying and Xerox business outside all the colleges and universities will continue